Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Treasured Words


I went thrift-store shopping with my daughter today. I don't ever give her real name here to protect her privacy. But every time I talk about her and use a fictional name, she complains that the name just isn't right; it's too weird, too old fashioned, too dorky, too...whatever. So I'll just call her X. Well, X and I made the rounds to our local thrift stores. She had a very specific list of things she was looking for but I did not, so I just looked around, finding a few usable items. Then as I looked through the books lining one long shelf near the checkout, I saw it.


I am somehow attracted to old books; not old as in from the 70's, but old as in canvas covers with simple embossed letters. The began reading a random paragraph of the book and found it quite engaging, and motivating and positive. I looked at the copyright, which was in an unusual place (common among old books). It had it's first printing in 1944 and this particular issue was from 1948...Cool! I love books like that. Then I looked for the title, which was hidden. Instead of being on the front of the book, it was on the edge. "How to Stop Worrying and Start Living" it said, "By Dale Carnegie." I hadn't heard of Dale Carnegie but I soon read that he'd written the famous, "How to Win Friends and Influence People." Cooler! Then I found a sticker with the price...75 cents! Even cooler yet! I don't really consider myself a worrier so it's a good thing I read the book before seeing the title. For the next few posts I'll share what I've learned from this new, and yet old...treasure.

"Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He, who can call to-day his own;
He who, secure within, can say:
'to-morrow, do thy worst, for I have lived to-day.'"

~Horace

Am I the only one who loves this? This is just so cool!

~Karen

7 comments:

Eileen said...

Hey Karen - Yeah! What a treasure - and the book looks to be in good shape, clean even. Well your post struck a chord with me, bringing back memories of my parents in the 50's. They were enrolled in a Dale Carnegie class in northeastern Ohio where we lived. So I grew up seeing *How to Stop Worrying...* and *How to Win Friends...* on the bookshelves. I cut my eye teeth on those books - which, I'll admit, might be hard to detect as per my behavior and attitude from time to time.

Anyway, I just went to check what I have of those books here with me...and in the next room I found *How to Win Friends...* in paperback and somewhere around here, or else in storage back in Dallas is *How to Stop Worrying...* the copy that once belonged to my dear mother with her name inscribed inside.

But thank you Karen for awakening some pleasant memories. =) EE
(http://russiawithlove.blogspot.com)

Karen Fisher-Alaniz said...

Really Eileen? Isn't that something! It never ceases to amaze me that what I post somehow strikes a chord with someone who reads my blog.

As for me, I vaguely remember seeing and hearing about the more current printings of "How to Win Friends and Influence People," but I had no idea it was that old.

A book about how not to worry sounds so drab to me. But this book really isn't at all drab. It's exciting and positive. It makes me want to get out there and conquer the world.

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